MOST POPULAR WOMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19933, 30 April 1928, Page 6

MOST POPULAR WOMAN.

FRANCE'S SELECTION.

MADAME MARIE CURIE.

LEARNED AND CHARMING.

REVIEW OF LIFE'S WORK.

BT C.A.

We are told that to Paris, of Greek legend, fell the lot of selecting the fairest among the three most beautiful women of his time. As these throe were goddesses and divinities all, his task must have been a delicate one. France, however, has created for herself » still more arduous undertaking—that of choosing from her womenkind, dead or living, the most dearly loved, and the apple of gold has bean given to Marie Curie, the daughter of a Polish professor, the jelpmeet and collaborator in her husband's work and the brilliant and energetic scientist who has done so much to assist in tbe progress of civilisation. It is a ratter surprising choice to those •who, with a romantic view of the Gallic mind, imagine it to be composed either of the glim realism which their literature would indicate, or of the charming flippancy which we have been wont to consider a permanent characteristic of the French people. But that strain of seriousness which lies not far below the surface, is upp3rmost in this decision. Popularity, thai; elusive and unsubstantial thing which we are apt to associate with the footlights, the salons, or with the world of sport, they have bestowed upon a woman of learning, a tireless explorer in tracts as; vast and unknown as those trodden by Stanley or Scott. Her Career and Work. Marie Sklodowska was born in Warsaw in 1867, the daughter of Professor Sklodowska, and her early childhood was imbued with the spirit of learning. The promising and gifted girl went to Paris and studied at the Sarbonne. Ii was there she met Pierre Curie, who had distinguished himself in various branches of science, and had been made professor of physics. There the attachment began, and the gardens of the Luxembourg were the silent witnesses of many harmonious conversations and quiet walks. Their marriage was more than an ordinary mating, it was a union of two extraordinary intellects, affiliated in & common cause. Their search along the path of science struck on to one goal—the betterment of mankind—and while applauding their remarkable genius we must not forget the other aspect they present—that of humanitarians. It is interesting to reflect that had Monsieur and Madame Curie studied at the Sarbonne some two hundred years earlier their activities would have been seriously retarded, as they would have come under the edict which forba,de all teaching and learning which ran counter to accepted authorities. To all reforms it offered an obstinate resistance, so that the "Sarbounian bog " became a by-word for bigotry and obscurantism. Working, however, in a more enlightened arce Madame Curie was able to make her discoveries without scholastic interference. In 1896 Becquerel first observed the property of radium in uranium, hence the name Becquerel rays —which he first connected with the property of phosphorescence. Shortly after Schmidt and Madame Curie discovered almost simultaneously that the compounds of thorium had the same radio activity. Thereupon the Curies, observing a much higher degree of that property in pitchblende than in the uranium extracted from it, carried out a laborious series of chemical operations which resulted in 1898 in the recognition of polanium, and Jater on in the same year of radium. Truthfully might Pope have said:— Nature and Nature's lawa lay hid in night, God said: "Let Curie be," and all was light. A Tragic Separation. Together husband and wife laboured, fend together they investigated the properties of these substances. The new field of research opened by Becquerel and Madame Curie was eagerly entered by other experimenters, and many able Englishmen did important work in the development and expansion of this valuable discovery. The devoted collaboration of the two scientists came to a tragic end in 1906, when Juggernaut, in the shape of a fourwheeler cab, overtook Monsieur Curie. He was run over in a Paris street and death was instantaneous.

Their temporal onion thus pathetically shattered, Madame Curie was left to carry on their work. With Monsieur Debierne sha was successful in isolating the metals polanium and radium, and though she still continued to contribute extensively to the inarch of science her proposed membership to the Academie des Science, to which her husband ha A been elected six years previously, was, after some controversy, rejected on the grounds of ineligibility of women. Eight years later, the prophet having returned to her own country, Madame Curie was made professor of radiology at Warsaw. Some Properties of Radium.

Radium, which is a million times more radio-active than uranium, is derived from pitch-blende in very small quantities. After a long process of crystallisation ifc has been prepared in the form of a practically pure salt. When compounds of radium are first prepared they create a luminosity which glows in the dark with a soft light like that of a glowworm, and which in time gradually decays. Another curious property of the radjumjsalts established by the Curies is their |JpWer of giving forth heat indefinitely, without any appreciable change taking place in the substance itself. Radio activity has also been discovered in some mineral waters and deep wells, and it is likely that other substances which are not conspicuously radio-active possess it in a very slight degree. Freshlyfallen snow, for instance, and freshlyfallen rain, when evaporated to dryness, leave a radio active residue. As radium has the power of temporarily exciting in neighbouring bodies the same radio-active power, and an their rays also produce ■'iffects on organic natter, it is possible that certain of these rays may have an influence in destroying malignant tumours. They are similar to the famous Rontgen rays, whose powers of penetrating substance opaque to ordinary light are not only the means of locating injuries and diseases in the human body, but also, in some cases, of giving them beneficial treatment. Charm of Personality. Not only to the discovery of the mo3t precious substance in tho world does Marie Curie owe the secret of her popularity. Her rare gift of conversation, her winning manner and her own personal appeal as a woman hav« made her widely loved for her own sake.

Wearing all that weigh't Of learning lightly like a flowjir.

Her murried life was on© of deep mutual attachment,, bound to her husband, as she was, not only by domestic ties of the most happy description, but alsc by their keen amd unflagging interest in their great research work. Generous, both in mind and pocket, free from all petty jealousies of rivals or colleagues, she in the centre of a wide circle of iriends, arid her ready and until ring sympathy still brings her countless admirers who lwve never seen her. Certainly have the voters in this competition made a wise choios.